The campaign, started by Gawker last week, to buy a video purportedly showing Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack from a group of alleged drug dealers who shot the video. The goal was met with 11 hours to spare.

The Rob Ford Crack Tape has become an object of intense scrutiny and interest in Toronto, and in Canada generally. The owner of the video is presumably frightened and skittish, and it's not entirely unreasonable that he would go to ground. We didn't consider it that remarkable for the first half of the week that he was hard for our tipster to reach. At this point, we have no idea why he is out of touch, or if he even knows about the Crackstarter campaign.

It is not known whether the video will ever surface. Gawker has said that in the event the video is unavailable it would donate the money to a Canadian charity who works in addiction issues. But the Toronto Star's Robyn Doolittle, one of the other reporters who has seen the tape, says that another copy of the video may exist.

"Actually, there's at least one another copy, there might be two other copies," she said.

Twitter reacts to the 'Crackstarter' reaching its goal. Story continues below slideshow: